NBA – The anti Russell Westbrook: Nikola Jokic, crazy statistics but not only

“What a luxury to have an MVP in a game that is played in overtime“. This sentence may sound confusingly banal to you. Yes, having the best player in the league on your team in a hot moment helps you win. What Denver Nuggets coach Mike Malone should have said, maybe to be was that his intention besides, it was rather “what a luxury to have this MVP there”. Nikola Jokic, since it is about him in question, has no equal in the NBA , not much in the rich history of the league either.Unclassifiable, the Serb makes statistics from another time while not caring.

However, not mentioning his numbers in Denver’s overtime victory over New Orleans (138-130) would be an affront. Here they are: 46 points, 12 rebounds, 11 assists, 3 steals and 4 blocks. And if that wasn’t enough to make you dizzy, here are his shooting percentages: 16/22 including 3/5 from 3-pointers and 11/12 from free throws. It’s the second time this season that he has scored a triple-double over 40 points. Twice for two wins with unreal shooting percentages (64% and 73%). This number says a lot about the specificity of the reigning MVP.

More Bird than Chamberlain

Matches of this level, LeBron James has done, Michael Jordan and Larry Bird too but when a player puts figures like these, we summon two gluttons: Russell Westbrook obviously or for the very old, Wilt Chamberlain. But when others need to force to slam incredible performances, he does it with the efficiency of an old veteran who would have nothing more to prove. After all, that’s not far from true. Voted best player of the last season, Nikola Jokic has, individually, nothing more to prove.

“He is phenomenal, different. just different“, judges Aaron Gordon who joined the Nuggets mid-season, after last night’s performance.”My teammates needed me“, simply commented the Serb. An outing in his image. One hand is probably enough to count his rowdy statements and if it is not to mention his weight at the start, you will find few articles about him that do not speak of his game. And for good reason, there is so much to say on that side…

Serbian by state, the “Joker” as he is nicknamed across the Atlantic, grew up with the precepts of the European game. To the Eastern European even one would be tempted to add. Dejan Bodiroga, Milos Teodosic, Theodoros Papaloukas, basketball legends, and closer to us Luka Doncic and therefore Nikola Jokic, have a way of playing basketball in common. The one where the fundamentals count more than the physical qualities. Trained in the very high Adriatic league, which brings together the best clubs from the countries of the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia), the Serb comes out of a mold that has shaped more than one. With the difference that he is a player of 2.11 m who plays pivot.

His best actions are passes

This is where the greatest singularity of Nikola Jokic’s game lies. As Joakim Noah did superbly during a season in Chicago, the pivot is the basic man of the offensive systems of his team. Even more in the absence of the leader, Jamal Murray. All the balls, or almost, pass at one time or another in his hands in attack. However, his “usage rate” (31.3%) is only the 12th in the NBA. This figure means that approximately one in three possessions played when he is on the floor ends in a shot (successful or not), an assist or a loss of the ball on his part. In short, taking risks.

Only one pivot is “ahead” of this ranking: Joel Embiid (36.8%). But the Cameroonian makes far fewer assists (4.4 against 7.9 for Jokic). Understand that he is playing “for him” when his rival for this season’s MVP title rotates the attack. We no longer count the number of insane assists from the Serb that are looping on social networks. Most of the time with a surprising gesture and very often at an impossible angle.

The last one dates from the very end of February. With his back to the basket on the Portland floor, he found Monte Morris in the opposite corner for an open three-pointer. The pass surprised everyone, from the Portland defender who saw it pass just over his arms without being able to deflect it, to, no doubt, his partner who had also missed his shot. There is all Nikola Jokic in this pass. To say that he sees the game before everyone else is an understatement, to say that he is the complete opposite of selfish is obvious. To say of him that he is the best player in the world today, a truth.